Revelation 14:6-7/Romans 3:19-28/St John 8:31-36In the Name + of JESUS. Amen. We know that whatever the Law says it speaks to those who are under the Law. Whatever the Law says is whatever God says. He speaks. He is your Lord and Master. The Law is His good and perfect will for you. He says, You shall have no other gods before Me. Yet you have feared losing your social security benefits, you have loved your money and possessions, you have trusted in yourself.You shall not misuse the Name of the Lord your God. Yet your daily speech is adorned not with prayer and praise and thanksgiving, but with cursing, swearing, and vulgarity. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Yet you have grown wearing of His Word and crave entertainment, excitement, five steps to a better future.You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Yet you have loved yourselves. You have disrespected those in authority, you have hated your brother, you have fantasized about the love of another, dragged your enemies’ name through the mud, and lusted after mammon.

We are unworthy slaves. We have forsaken our one, true Lord and Master and have given our allegiance to another. We have attempted to serve God and mammon. And we got caught. Our mouths are stopped. There is no excuse. We are held accountable to God, the Lord of the Law, the Master of the house. We are unworthy slaves.

And so you rightly stand in fear. For the slave does not remain in the house forever. You can be expelled any day on account of your disobedience. You can try to go through the motions and hope your Lord and Master won’t notice. Won’t notice you have betrayed Him, slandered His good Name, pilfered His goods and squandered His possessions. You can pretend He won’t notice or doesn’t care. After all, you’re still here, you still have a place in His house. But for how long?

Your conscience will get the better of you. You may be able to hide from others. But your guilt won’t let you rest. You have sinned. You have fallen short of God’s Law. Far short.

Repent. As long as you are slaves your conscience will never give you peace. As long as you are slaves you will never earn a place at the table, a spot in the house. As long as you are slaves you will always live in fear and uncertainty, never sure when you’ll get the boot because you never measure up. You are never as good and perfect as the Law demands. You are never perfect as your Lord and Master is perfect; never righteous as His Law speaks.

But the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law. Revealed in the Son who became a slave. Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the true offspring of Abraham, the Seed of the Woman who was born under the law to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Gal 4:4-5).

You are justified to your Lord and Master not by your works or morals or obedience. This is simply the labor demanded of a slave. It earns you nothing. It is expected. Rather, you are made right with God by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, His Son.

He bought you out of bondage and slavery. He redeemed you, a lost and condemned slave, a servant of sin and death. He did so not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. He is the obedient Son who became a Slave to the Law who was the Lamb for you. Your Lord and Master put Him forward as the Mercy-Seat Sacrifice by His blood. As the blood of the sacrificial lamb was smeared on the Ark of the Covenant, so the blood of the Lamb of God now covers the Law, covers its accusation and condemnations. His blood blots out your sin.

By faith in Him, in His sacrifice, you are made right with God. By faith in the Son you are set free. More than that, you are made sons.

Slaves live in fear for the moment they will be cast out. The Son remains forever. So in the Son you remain. His Word bespeaks you righteous. His Gospel forgives you of all your sins, all your debt and dishonor to your Lord, who is no longer your slave Master, but your Father who loves you. You have a place at the table, a spot in the house. You are free. What will you do with that freedom?

Will you fall back into slavery? Into bondage to sin? May it never be! Do not use your freedom as license for self-indulgence. Following the whims of your heart, indulging the passions, stewing in anxiety, these are not freedom, but another slavery.

Rather remain in the House of your Father. For you are no longer slaves, but children. Eat and drink at His Table. Abide in the Word of His Son which alone gives your guilty conscience peace. His Word and promise are certain. He is just and true. And He has made right what had gone wrong through the life and work of His Son who is the righteousness of God. He reckons this righteousness to you by faith in Him.

This, dear children, is the eternal Gospel proclaimed by the messengers of the Lord to all who dwell on earth. The angel Luther came as the Lord’s messenger at the appointed time. But this Word did not belong to Him; nor was it the possession of Germany. It is the Gospel freedom wrought by the Son given to be preached to every nation and tribe and language and people of all times and places.

Thus the Festival of the Reformation is not one day a year. It’s not a celebration of October 31, 1517 or June 25, 1530. Or the last Sunday in October. The Reformation is the on-going work of the Word of Christ in us and for us. Semper reformandaecclesia est. “The Church is always reforming.” Meaning, we, the Church, the Household of faith, all of us, must always be reforming. You are reformed through the Word of Christ, by which He abides in you and you in Him. You are always justly accused and condemned by His Law, called to die to your sin, to your false allegiances, to your idolatry; and raised to life by His Gospel freedom in the Son who sets you free and makes you sons.

Those who believe thusly are the true offspring of Abraham and of Luther, and moreover, children of the heavenly Father. Abide, then, in the house of the Father with His Son by His Spirit, ever singing His praise, singing of the mighty works He has done, singing of His love for you, how He sent Jesus to be the atonement for your sin.

For by this do you live free, free to live in faith toward God and in love toward your neighbor. Free to trust in His Father and your Father for all that is needed for life and salvation. And free to serve your neighbor according to the works of the law. For you are no longer under the Law. You are not a slave to it. You are under the blood, a slave to righteousness in Christ. Thus may you freely serve your neighbor in thanksgiving to the One who sets you free. For you have an eternal home with the angels and all the saints prepared for you by the eternal Son to Whom be glory in the Church, together with the Father and + the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.